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With Windows 8 coming out it is inevitable that we'll receive a flood of compatibility question for games released prior to Windows 8 being made available. How should we handle such questions?

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+1 from me but Microsoft is very much committed to not making games released for DirectX 10 and 11 irrelevant. So they should install just fine for Windows 8 as well. This is the reason Microsoft has WinRT and Metro as part of Windows 8. So just tell askers to try and install the game on Windows 8, and if they have any problems then they can ask a question here. – One-One Nov 2 '12 at 16:44
I did it on this question, but it is closed Can Dishonored run on Windows 8? – One-One Nov 2 '12 at 16:46

3 Answers

up vote 21 down vote

The problem I see with allowing all compatibility questions is that you run the risk of having questions for every single PC game released prior to Windows 8.

Working with the assumption that most games that work with Windows Vista/7 should also work with Windows 8, since Microsoft has a fairly good track record of maintaining application compatibility, the answer to most of the questions like this recent one would be yes, it is compatible, end of story. There is no actual problem to solve here.

Instead, I propose that we only allow questions where the OP has, at the very least, actually tried to install / run the game, and, is facing actual compatibility problems. That way we ensure that there is an actual problem to solve here, and help narrow the scope the problem down.

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Agreed. Questions asking "Is X compatible with Windows 8?" are not useful. Either the asker has the means to test (and if they run into issues, ask that), or they are looking for a shopping recommendation (whether or not they should update to Windows 8, given that they want to run game X). – Raven Dreamer♦ Nov 2 '12 at 14:20
@RavenDreamer I did not see your comment. Similar to mine. Please see above. DirectX 10 and 11 should not be a problem based on my API evaluation of Windows 8. Microsoft is still very much committed towards backwards compatibility. Microsoft has to be since the company is the dominant leader in user OS market (which covers gamers). – One-One Nov 2 '12 at 16:50
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@RavenDreamer The problem with shopping rec questions in relation to the Q&A model is the completely subjective nature of them, not the fact that ultimately someone was using the information in the answer to decide whether or not to buy something. – Sterno Nov 5 '12 at 19:47
@Sterno What part of, "I want to play X, should I upgrade to windows 8?" doesn't sound subjective? – Raven Dreamer♦ Nov 5 '12 at 21:57
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@RavenDreamer That's a totally different question than "Will Game X run under Operating System Y?" – Sterno Nov 6 '12 at 15:21
@Sterno The point is, it's speculative. Either they already have the game and the os (in which case, test it, and if you have problems, post that), or they're missing one or the other (in which case, NARQ). – Raven Dreamer♦ Nov 6 '12 at 19:17
@RavenDreamer I think I'm looking at this from the other direction than you. The question may not be "Should I upgrade to Windows 8?", but "I already have Windows 8... if I buy Dishonored, will it run on my machine?" It is a completely answerable question that does not require speculation or subjectivity, and while it may inform the person's decision of whether or not to buy the game, it doesn't have the typical problem of shopping recommendation questions. I don't understand why we'd advocate that they actually have to buy the game and fail to get it to work before they can ask if it will. – Sterno Nov 7 '12 at 0:44
@Sterno Because who's to say the issue will be because of the operating system alone? Just look at all the people trying to get Bioshock to run on Windows 7. Depending on the video drivers, etc, there are dozens of potential confounding factors, and we cannot hope to account for all of them. – Raven Dreamer♦ Nov 7 '12 at 1:57
up vote 1 down vote

My proposed solution is that we have a single community wiki question, and it only asks Is my game compatible with Windows 8? That's it. The title and the body, and then tagged .

Then we have only one (community wiki) answer that says:

Yes, if your game worked under Windows Vista or 7, then it probably works under Windows 8. The following list are the known exceptions, or links to guides for the games that need a little extra work.

The list would then link to external guides, or more preferably, to What steps do I need to take in order to get <X> to work under Windows 8? questions here.

Then, when another Is this game compatible? question pops up, it simply gets closed as duplicate.

I realize this is a huge divergence from what we usually do, but it saves us from having potentially dozens of pointless open questions that really aren't going to make the internet better 6 months down the road. We condense it down into a single slightly less pointless question that could actually be of great utility.

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Or you could have a community wiki post that says "List of games which do not install on Win 8" and people can just add games to that list. – One-One Nov 3 '12 at 3:23
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I don't think encouraging list answers is a good solution to this issue. For one, making an exception for this situation doesn't set a good example going forward. If we HAVE to allow some form of Windows 8 questions, then limit them to how we handle technical problems in general. Give us details or we close your question. – fbueckert Nov 4 '12 at 4:24
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@bueckert: Then perhaps we explain in the question that it isn't a typical question on Arqade, and due to special circumstances, there have been some exceptions to the rules made just for it. IMHO, all the questions for individual games should be closed as Too Localized, Not a Real Question, or Not Constructive. New users to the site (who I feel might post a disproportional amount of these questions) would have a sour taste in their mouth, and might never return. If instead they get closed as dupe, they'll probably get the correct answer, and the likelihood of them returning is much higher. – MBraedley Nov 4 '12 at 13:49
I should clarify: We should not be making exceptions for any questions. That will lead to a tangled decision tree that will lead to conflicting actions as we continue to add in exceptions. If a question cannot meet our guidelines, allowing a single exception isn't the way to go. As for new users, we have much higher quality standards than most gaming websites. A new user who leaves in a huff because his crappy question got closed is not a loss. – fbueckert Nov 5 '12 at 18:36
up vote -1 down vote

I think questions like this are potentially fine and should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Are we going to get a few of them? Probably.

Are they awesome questions that are always high quality and should be heavily encouraged? Nah, I wouldn't say that.

Could they be lazy questions that deserve downvotes? Probably.

Are some of them going to be too vague and NARQ? Yeah.

Should they be forbidden? In my opinion, not in the general case, no. I think we should judge each question of this type by its own merits.

My "similar question that we would allow" in this case would be asking:

"How do I open this side door in this dungeon in Skyrim? It's not on my way to complete my current quest, but I'd like to know what's on the other side or if it's important."

The arguments against are:

You run the risk of having questions for every single PC game released prior to Windows 8.

In the Skyrim case: You could ask about any door in any dungeon in Skyrim. There are a lot of doors in a lot of dungeons in Skyrim. We could have near-infinite questions in the same vein. How do I open this other door? What about this door in a house? What about that door in this cave?

How is the existence of many/infinite questions in a problem space a reason to forbid a question?

I can see how if someone was asking a million of these questions we might say "hey, slow down a bit." That could be spamming or content seeding. The potential for a question to be varied slightly and asked again isn't, though.

since Microsoft has a fairly good track record of maintaining application compatibility, the answer to most of the questions like this recent one would be yes, it is compatible, end of story.

In the Skyrim case: Most doors are openable via keys, lockpicking, or a nearby mechanism. It's the same answer, every time.

How is the answer being short or similar to the answers to other questions a reason to forbid a question?

I posted my thoughts on this before with the "Diablo error" questions, especially the section on "Dupes and Frankenquestions."

Instead, I propose that we only allow questions where the OP has, at the very least, actually tried to install / run the game, and, is facing actual compatibility problems.

In the Skyrim case: The door is not a problem you actually, currently face. There's no quest marker on the other side. You don't have to go through this door, so it's not a problem. You could just ignore the door. You could just quit the game, even. Come back when you have to open the door, and then we'll help you.

Sometimes knowing the solution (or that there is/isn't one) about a problem you anticipate can help you make a decision or prepare for it.

Knowing that there are issues with a particular game might influence my decision to upgrade to Windows 8. In essence, the root problem is "Can I upgrade to Windows 8?" and the manifestation of that problem on our site is "(Will I still be able to)/(Can I) play this game if I do an upgrade?"

If I read this answer and I wanted to play Just Cause 2, can I not ask if it's compatible or how to play it on Windows 8? How far do I have to go before it can be considered a problem "I actually face?" Is a reasonable suspicion enough? Can I go by reports on the internet, or should I only trust my friends? (This all seems like good research that should be done in order to avoid getting downvoted or VTC'ed) Or do I have to have personally be in the situation in the question at the second I ask the question?

If we're tempted to make a more stringent requirement for "problems you actually face" we should probably consider doing that site-wide, and not specific to a certain type of question.

For a more network-wide perspective, this question and answer on MSO shows how at least one SO mod interprets this particular clause (it's also +10/-0 as of this writing), and there's a podcast here where Joel touches on it, although his examples aren't precisely on-point.

Some other Skyrim examples of "community approved anticipatory" questions:

If I'm a member of one guild, am I prevented from joining any of the other guilds?

You don't currently have the problem. Go join the Companions and then if you're having trouble joining the Dark Brotherhood, come back and ask a specific question.

Are there any downsides to killing thieves?

Kill a few and then you'll know. If you run into downsides, come back and ask about them.

Can you steal back the skeleton key?

You're not in the situation yet - put the key back, and then ask if there's any way to get it afterwards.

Is it feasible to play a MagiSassin(tm) in Skyrim?

Why don't you try it and see? Come back if you're having problems balancing magic and stealth and ask a specific question.

(I just picked a few at random - I was looking for one in particular, so I searched for "[skyrim] +thief" but then I got distracted and found a number of good examples)

Having said all of this, there are certainly some of these questions already that I would feel comfortable voting to close as NARQ. I don't think that's a reason to ban the whole class, though.

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The problem I see with this is that there's no way to give any definitive answer to these questions. The scope is also massive, so much so, there's an [entire SE site](superuser.com) dedicated to helping users with their computer issues. Asking about an ingame problem limits the scope to just the game itself. By asking, "Does Game <X> work in OS <Y>?", you've just widened the scope considerably. And there's absolutely no guarantee any answers we get will be definitive; PC hardware is so diverse, that it's a very localized question to the asker. – fbueckert Nov 2 '12 at 17:51
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@fbueckert, there are ways to ask good and bad questions about any problem, and there are certainly some of these that have been so vague that they should get closed. There are some, however, that have use. And there's a lot more commonality among issues with gaming on PCs than I think you're giving credit for. – agent86♦ Nov 2 '12 at 18:16
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Now that you put it so succinctly, I have to evaluate whether my stance was correct. You through the use of examples have really made your point. I just need to be more patient when dealing with such questions. Thank you. – One-One Nov 5 '12 at 15:08

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